Last night we arrived in Kandy. It is a small town in pretty much the dead center of the island and is a popular tourist spot. We started out the day in the Botanical Gardens which were absolutely amazing. I happened to have my student ID from the UMN with me so I got a very nice student discount :) We wandered around the gardens for a couple hours but could have easily spent the whole day there. The place was gigantic with so much to look at. Without a map you could definitely get yourself good and lost. It was one of those places you wanted to be with your significant other, romantic stroll... maybe throw a picnic in there or something. You immediately think of that because scattered through the gardens, there are couples EVERYWHERE cunuddling (sp?). So it was a miss Tanner kind of morning :)
After the gardens, we went through the markets. We started off, apparently, in the wrong markets and one of the shop keepers walked us to the right one and proceeded to hang out with us through the markets and help us navigate our way which was cool. Bought a ton of stuff and definitely got ripped off more than once but oh well. The markets were nice and not as "in your face" and some of the others so that was a relief.
In the afternoon we went to a Kandyian Dance performance. It seemed similar to the ones that I had been to in Peru (obviously not Incan, but the general concept). A little stranger and not quite as elaborate. The end was the coolest part where two of the dancers sang a song and prayed before they walked on fire...more than a couple times. It was so cool and everyone got to gather around to see it up close.
The 2-week special group (16yr olds) were also in Kandy this weekend but had their own itinerary, however, we ended up seeing them at the conclusion of the night at the hostel. What turned into a leisurely chat with ice cream ended with me performing a sternal rub to one of the girls who walked off and went unconscious. A couple of her friends found her hanging over a balcony and luckily we had decided to go to bed at that time and we ran into them trying to wake her. Thankfully, but what took longer than I would have liked, she came around but took a long time to become oriented to what was happening. She had quite the sore chest the next day but was happy she was feeling better. They think she might have had a reaction to the malaria medication she was taking. So I went to bed that night a little on edge, but thankfully everything turned out just fine.
We did a little site seeing the next morning, but ended up taking a train back into Colombo around 10:30am. From what we had heard, the train was to take about 2.5 hr compared to 5 hr on the bus and the view was worth it. We got to the station and on the train almost 45 minutes early because we just didn't have anything else to do, and thank god we did because it was already pretty much full. Well, we came to find out that although the view is awesome, it may not have been worth the unbelievably PACKED, HOT HOT HOT, 4.5 hr train ride. But... it's all part of the adventure right?
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